


Flamelength

by quake_quiver



Series: Ten Trails Challenge: Trail 9 [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Burns, Dean Winchester Whump, Fire, Gen, Hunt Gone Wrong, Protective Sam Winchester, Sam Winchester Whump, burning building, kind of ambiguous anyway, smoke inhalation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26954617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quake_quiver/pseuds/quake_quiver
Summary: This house is burning. It threatens to take the Winchesters with it.
Relationships: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Series: Ten Trails Challenge: Trail 9 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955368
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Flamelength

**Author's Note:**

> I have fallen woefully behind, but this is for the prompt "burning building" from the 5th. Some whump for both Dean and Sam! Enjoy!

“Dean!” Sam barks, coughing and gasping for clean air. He barrels further into the house. “Dean, where are you?”

Sam strains to hear an answer, but the fire is too loud.

This house is burning. They were in the middle of banishing a poltergeist when things went wrong, and the whole house went up in a blaze. Sam had gotten the family out of the house in time, and he’d thought Dean was right behind them until they’d spilled out into the yard and his big brother was nowhere to be seen.

Sam may hate fire, and it may make his skin crawl with panic, but he isn’t leaving Dean in here.

“Dean,” Sam calls again, squinting to try to see through the smoke and the blindingly bright flames. His lungs seize around the smoke, and he breaks into hacking coughs behind the shirt collar he has yanked up over his mouth and nose.

Dean doesn’t answer him. Sam quickly checks every room, wincing a few times when he gets too close to walls or door frames and flames lick at his arms and sides. He tries not to gasp for breath and prays that he won’t pass out; the suffocating heat and the lack of oxygen are making black spots pop in his eyes, and he feels like he’s on a rocking boat.

None of it matters. He has to find Dean.

Sam breathes in to yell for Dean again, but his breath catches and he devolves into coughing instead, his lungs burning.

It figures that the staircase is at the back of the house, and that Dean is there, at the bottom of the stairs, looking dazed and barely conscious.

“Dean,” Sam rasps, stumbling forward. The black spots have expanded to patches, and the searing, burning pain is a constant, almost debilitating sensation in his lungs. His clothes feel too hot and stuck to his skin, and the spots where the fire has touched him throb.

It all pales at the sight of Dean. There’s a burning beam pinning one of Dean’s legs in place, and Sam heads right for it.

Dean makes a noise and coughs. It’s weak. Dean’s pale, his pasty skin setting a stark contrast to the soot coating him in streaks and patches.

“De-“ Sam manages, his own throat raw and burning from the hot, heavy air in here. Sam spends only a moment surveying the beam, the wood red-hot and covered in dancing orange flames, and then he moves toward it.

The beam is _heavy_. Sam strains to keep a hold on it and lift it, unable to keep from crying out as the fire eats through his hands and his arms, and the flames dance up and press against his chest where he’s bent over the beam. Sam takes a deep breath, fighting to stay on his feet at the resulting wave of pain in his lungs and down his throat, and hefts the beam up a little higher.

Dean must be a little more with it than he thought, because he wiggles his leg out from under the beam. Sam drops it as soon as his foot clears it, and even though he really wants to take a moment to try to regroup and recover, he knows they don’t have the time. The house is groaning, like it wants to give way and go down, and they can’t be in here when that happens.

Sam’s whole body is shaking. The burns hurt so badly that he has to grit his teeth to keep from whimpering as he helps Dean up from the floor and presses his raw, grilled arms around his brother to support him.

There are sirens just barely audible over the roar of the flames. Behind them, the staircase gives and splinters apart, falling to the ground.

Sam just keeps his eyes on the open door, the yard and the night sky barely visible through the smoke-filled, heat-shimmering air.

Dean is dead weight against him. Sam doesn’t know if he’s unconscious or just too weak from laying in the smoke and under the beam for so long, but keeping them both on their feet is a challenge. Sam wavers a few times, both of them almost going down, but he pushes through it.

The sirens grow louder. The howling horn of a fire truck screams from down the street, and a moment later, as Sam drags them closer and closer to the front door, the fire truck and a pair of ambulances come into sight.

Sam can’t breathe. Dean’s head lolls against his shoulder as the black patches in Sam’s vision extend even further, and he gets the lightheaded, vacant feeling that he’s about to pass out. He thinks he’s dimly aware of firefighters rushing toward them.

Dean’s pulled away from him. Sam cries out, reaching for his brother, but his knees buckle as his vision blacks out fully.

Just before Sam loses consciousness completely, he’s aware of a stranger’s arms around him, dragging him toward salvation.


End file.
